A HAPPY day at Whitsuntide, <br /> As soon ’s the zun begun to vall, <br />We all stroll’d up the steep hill-zide <br /> To Meldon, gret an’ small; <br />Out where the Castle wall stood high <br />A-mwoldren to the zunny sky. <br /> <br />An’ there wi’ Jenny took a stroll <br /> Her youngest sister, Poll, so gay, <br />Bezide John Hind, ah! merry soul, <br /> An’ mid her wedlock fay; <br />An’ at our zides did play an’ run <br />My little maid an’ smaller son. <br /> <br />Above the baten mwold upsprung <br /> The driven doust, a-spreaden light, <br />An’ on the new-leav’d thorn, a-hung, <br /> Wer wool a-quiv’ren white; <br />An’ corn, a-sheenen bright, did bow, <br />On slopen Meldon’s zunny brow. <br /> <br />There, down the roofless wall did glow <br /> The zun upon the grassy vloor, <br />An’ weakly-wandren winds did blow, <br /> Unhinder’d by a door; <br />An’ smokeless now avore the zun <br />Did stan’ the ivy-girded tun. <br /> <br />My bwoy did watch the daws’ bright wings <br /> A-flappen vrom their ivy bow’rs; <br />My wife did watch my maid’s light springs, <br /> Out here an’ there vor flow’rs; <br />And John did zee noo tow’rs, the place <br />Vor him had only Polly’s face. <br /> <br />An’ there, of all that pried about <br /> The walls, I overlook’d em best, <br />An’ what o’ that? Why, I made out <br /> Noo mwore than all the rest: <br />That there wer woonce the nest of zome <br />That wer a-gone avore we come. <br /> <br />When woonce above the tun the smoke <br /> Did wreathy blue among the trees, <br />An’ down below, the liven vo’k <br /> Did tweil as brisk as bees: <br />Or zit wi’ weary knees, the while <br />The sky wer lightless to their tweil<br /><br />William Barnes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-castle-ruins/
